Blackened
by White Trenchcoat
Summary: As a young peachick, Shen always wanted strength. But is learning kung fu and combat from an exiled Warlord really the way to do it? Will he even survive Junfa's terrible trials? Involves 1 OC and Shen, no slash, some disturbing scenes.
1. Blackened

A/N: Yes I'm still here, and with a new chapter. Double update actually, as I'm also going to put a new chapter to my Shen Rising story at the same time to make up for it. There was never really a schedule to begin with, I just didn't want to submit everything at once, even if I did write everything at once.

Summary: Already starting to feel inferior so early in his life, Shen leaves his family for five years to train with an exiled peacock: Warlord Junfa. But will Shen survive the sadistic tortures of this disturbed warrior?

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><p>Blackened<p>

Some years before Shen's exile (7-8)

"You said you wanted to learn kung fu, Shen dear" explained his mother, smiling with a gesture to Master Flying Rhino. "You want me to learn from this lumbering great oaf? Think, mother!" exclaimed Shen in outrage, and his father stepped forwards. "Don't speak to your mother like that, Shen. You should be grateful we're even considering letting you learn such a violent art." Shen's father waited for his son's response, and the peachick nodded. "Sorry, father. It's just... all Flying Rhino can do is charge things, or whack them with his weapon. That's undignified, and beneath me" explained Shen.

"Refer to him with the proper respect. Master Flying Rhino has saved this city many times, and we are grateful to his services. If you continue being insolent, then we will just forbid you from learning this dangerous art. Why would you even need to learn kung fu, Shen?" demanded his father, genuinely confused. "Because it will make me less weak. I'd rather learn to fight than to write up treaties."

The arguement went on, and Flying Rhino was even brought in. Despite disagreeing with Shen's approach, the master did agree with him that a rhino and a peacock were far removed in terms of fighting. However, he might like to learn alongside a proteege of his, a green peahen called Jade Wings. Since she was a commoner, Shen again said no, and finally stormed off to his room.

The Oil Wastelands, a few days later.

Out of the doors of the destroyed pagoda, a scruffy looking peacock was shoved unceremoniously across the ground. Dressed in peasant clothes, the only remaining sight that marked him as Shen were the metal claws on his feet. In front him, Warlord Junfa led him to a side of the cliff. Shen's combat teacher wore a very thin armour made of lightweight steel plates. Once known as The Silver Blessing, now the armour had been blackened by charcoal and soot.

The Black Peacock, as he was now called, led young Shen to a cover that towered over the two birds. "Open the hatch!" cawed Junfa, to his confused protege. Nothing had been said, causing Shen no end to frustration. Up on the cliff, a towering and demonic fortress held the foundry that built the drills. Oil and charcoal was farmed, alongside huge structures that built the titanic metallic drills.

A dawning comprehension crossed Shen's face, and the exhaust chute opened. Foul black smoke exploded outwards, Junfa jumping out of the way, but Shen was too shocked to do anything. The first gulp of tainted air caused the peacock to black out, his brain just shutting down from the pain his lungs felt.

An hour later, Junfa threw him in front of the smog again, and once more Shen blacked out. This continued at shorter intervals, and when Shen managed to survive ten seconds alive in the smog, Junfa allowed him a break. Patches of black latching onto his feathers, Shen looked nothing like the royalty he had come from.

Which was just what Junfa intended, proudly watching the young peachick be subjected to toxic air for the full day. As Shen screamed in pain and anguish once more, Junfa closed his eyes, relishing the cries of pain. People like Shen, royalty and prestigious people, made him what he was today. Sure, he remembered the days when he strode about in gleaming white armour.

Flanked by his own elite group of peacocks, cranes and other birds, along with the legion of citizens, Junfa had been a celebrity. He was broken from the memory of life past by the silence of Shen's screams. Looking down again, Junfa saw that his charge had not fainted yet. Instead, the peacock was hacking, waving the smoke away. His lungs were, no doubt, threatening to collapse.

Stepping forwards, Junfa felt what sustained Shen.

Determination.

That, and willpower, made an invincible cloud around the young peacock. With a cry of anguish and rejection, Shen collapsed once more. Who cared if he killed the little prince? He'd send the body back as an example. Ready to drag Shen out again, the Warlord stepped back in surprise, for Shen managed to do that himself up, standing back up and opening his tail feathers.

Some of the smoke was weakly flapped away, and then that little movement was too much. Junfa walked forwards, and picked Shen out of the smoke, seeing red welts and blackened feathers marring his protégé's once perfect body. Satisfied, the Warlord carried Shen into the pagoda, and into a specially prepared room. As attendants draped him slowly onto an ordinary bed, Junfa moved smoothly over to a mixing bowl and finished the crushing.

An amateur alchemist himself, the Warlord added a few drops, and soon the specially prepared drugs wafted smoke into the air. Closing the windows, Junfa and the attendants walked out, leaving the hallucinogenic smoke in the room to torture Shen.

As toxins entered the young peacock's mind, Junfa would destroy both the peacock's mentality and form, ready to be restructured. Having been deprived of air, Shen's lungs worked overtime, pulling in clean air, but also the wafting smoke. Junfa closed the door, just as Shen began to thrash and cry out.

Screw revenge, thought Junfa. The Warlord's torture of a young peacock Lord, one that would become something he could not, was exhilarating. To destroy Shen's future, something that made Junfa seep withjealousy, was like gorging oneself on a large feast.

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><p>The gigantic dragon of black smoke lunged out of the sky, and Shen ran. Tripping over his metal claws, the peacock felt his own protectors stab their steel talons into his body. Precious lifeblood poured onto the ground, the dragon rearing up and opening its mouth. Shen disappeared in a haze of multicolor, reshaping to become himself again.<p>

Now his body was becoming smoke, and as his breathe came out Shen saw it was black. This was... impossible. Shen's own breath was now choking him, expelling itself from his throat. A golden throne, the back shaped like a peacock's plumage, turned dark slowly. Shen reached out a wing, but before his eyes it rotted and decayed to nothing, falling into a dark hole as it disintegrated.

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><p>AN: Yay. Finally I got around to writing this. There was a bit of prologue with Shen talking with Junfa, asking him to be trained, but it seemed boring and I wanted to get straight into torturing, punishing and training Shen. It might be a bit terrible to some, but eh, Shen is one disturbed peacock by the events of KFP2. Like I said at the top, there is also the next chapter for my fic Shen Rising. Enjoy the rest of this saga (There will be more of Blackened soon) and the rest of my stories if you haven't already.

-WT.


	2. Dark rebirth

Author's note: What can I say? I didn't get a lot of inspiration for this beyond the first chapter, but now I do, and I will write more because I love this franchise.

Chapter 2: Dark Rebirth

A week after subjection to the smog and disorienting nightmares had drained away any smugness Shen had retained when he had first come to Junfa's door. A month later, and Shen's throat felt dryer than rice paper. So much soot and smoke had cleared his body, but also left it ruined. Having gotten used to breathing in such horrible substances, now he could breathe normal air perfectly. Unknown to him, it was also a mix of herbs that Junfa had made him inhale all throughout the beginning of his training. After explaining to his mentor what had happened, Shen had been eager to move on to the next stage.

"It is admirable that you chose to ask for more, when we have not even begun your training" commented Junfa on his throne, drinking another jug of water thirstily.

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><p>Dressed in his black rusting armour, Junfa half hobbled towards the patch of clear ground in his Oil Wastelands, and adjusted himself. A rhino got down on all fours several meters in front of the peacock. A cocky gleam entered his eyes, all too pleased to kill the peacock that had treated him so badly.<p>

Junfa didn't move until the last movement, jumping up and pushing his feet down into the rhino's head. The momentum of the charge, aimed downwards, broke the creature's neck, and Junfa landed on the still warm corpse. "That is how you fight these brutes. Speed, stealth, craftiness. Use your own enemies strength against them. Now, I will show you speed." Walking to a different part of his lands with the peacock and his gathering, the warlord told them to stand back. Above, several cranes, owls and other birds wielded sharp bladed weapons.

"Drop!" he ordered, and the blades flew down from high up, fast enough to skewer anything in their way. Junfa looked up and swerved, ducked and rolled, avoiding the falling the blades and weaving his wave through the gaps, sometimes knocking away a blade on purpose. As the last wave of weapons fell he picked one up and threw it into the sky, sticking into the heart of a crane which squawked and fell slowly. Shen was in awe, until a blade skimmed over his face, leaving a thin cut. He cried out and clapped a hand to the trickle of blood. Junfa walked towards him among the broken knives.

"You want that power, don;t you? You want to be as quick as the wind, and light as a feather. To dig under your opponent's guard and exploit the tender weakness Answer!" he yelled to his protege, and Shen grovelled in the dirt.

"I do, Master."

"Now you have shown me genuine respect and awe, I will share my knowledge of kung fu."

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><p>Both birds sat cross-legged in the room, facing each other with eyes closed. "I was at peace, once. My armour, crafted by the same smith who made Flying Rhino's, gave me power and prestige, an outer demonstration of my inner peace. When that foolish thug defeated me, I broke inside. You are on a reversed path to mine, Shen. I had attained inner peace, and lost it. You will perhaps never have it, because already darkness holds your heart. So, now you meditate, and find focus within yourself. I have scoured your soul clean, although it does not seem it, and now you must not waste my efforts. I will return at night time."<p>

Shen grunted and heaved, moving the gears around by hand. In front and behind him were similar workers, all wearing the same rags as him and doing the same turning movement with the large machine. Here, he was not Lord Shen of Gongmen City, but just Shen, lost soul. By day he worked as a peasant, and by night he meditated.

Unbeknownst to both of them, it was not working. After a few days of working like this, Shen had given up and now thought up ways of utilising his new found wisdom. He was getting stronger thanks to the manual labour, but he felt his body tremble at the oddest times. Was it worth it? Did he really have to go all through this for some crazed peacock defeated by someone his inferior?

Pausing in his meditation, he went and found Junfa playing mahjong with himself, turning the board every now and then to take the place of the different sides. As the door opened, he saw Shen and beckoned the peacock in, although the Warlord frowned. "Given up on your meditating?"

"I want to know when you'll actually teach me kung fu. I feel my body cracking, and breaking. It wants me to stop, and I want that feeling to stop. If you will not teach me, then say so, but do not leave me in this quasi-neutral state. Teach me, or not, just tell me the truth!"

"And why should I? You think the truth will help you through life? You think I could do all this in one week? You need to work hard, Shen, and your body is just an excuse. Boo hoo, my body is weak. Boo hoo, my family doesn't love me. Those are excuses, and weakness. When your opponent is coming at you there is no time for weakness! Do you understand you pathetic little peachick?"

"You will address me as Lord Shen."

"Insolent fool! You are not royalty here, Shen. You are my servant, my underling. Your life is worth as little as the lost souls down below toiling away just to have some grasp of usefulness. I am your saviour. I make you all useful, the only one who would. You want special treatment? Too bad."

"I am not a worker, and my life is not worthless! I must have been stupid to think you could teach me. You couldn't even defeat Flying Rhino. You are a disgrace."

Speechless at this gall, Junfa turned the mahjong game around and moved a piece, thoughtful now. He'd broken the peacock, but now he had come back stronger, and was doubting his way of life. What to do now…

"My fighting style is based on a heavy based form of Aikido, redirecting the opponent's strength thanks to my unity with the Universe. However, it appears you are set for a different style, one more flashy, but no less lethal. It will require speed, however, and daring. You must be willing to face your opponent and attack close in, at great risk to yourself. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Warlord Junfa."

"We will see."

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><p>Author's note: Junfa attained inner peace, and combined aikido (A proper martial art about dodging and avoiding) with the 'one with the universe dew drop' thing. Hope you enjoyed this new chapter, I've been watching KFP Legends of Awesomeness recently so I'm inspired again. Sort of.<p> 


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